I’ve been tagged again which is probably a good thing since it’s been a while since I have posted. First, though, some news. We got our economic stimulus check in the mail last week! Yippee! I got to buy an external hard drive so that I can back-up all my precious pictures and scrap stuff! It was fun splurging on fun stuff for a week. Another bit of news is that I have added another blog. If you click scrap layouts at the top of this page, you will go to a page with a link to the new blog on it. It showcases (or at least will) my most beautiful layouts. Check it out!

Now for the meme:

I was tagged by Monkey Memories!

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. pastor
2. assistant manager at a pizza place
3. secretary
4. shift manager at Office Depot

Four movies I could watch over and over:

I really don’t like to watch movies over and over, but the ones that I can stand to watch like once a year are:
1. Princess Bride
2. The Matrix Trilogy
3. Dances with Wolves (although it’s been a LONG time since I’ve watched it, I just LOVED that movie. I wonder if I still do?)
4. Lord of the Rings

Four places I have lived:
1. Scottsdale, AZ (haha this one stays the same as MM’s answer!)
2. Marion, Michigan
3. Minneapolis, Minnesota
4. Tulsa, Oklahoma

Four TV shows I like:
1. Alias (My absolute favorite!)
2. Lost (yes, I’m a Lostie and proud of it!)
3. CSI
4. The Pretender (anyone else remember that show? It was awesome!)

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Chocolate cake with triple chocolate chip fudge frosting (YUM!)
2. Tuna Casserole (my favorite comfort food)
3. Coldstone Ice Cream (the best combo in the world: 1/4 mint, 3/4 Chocolate with brownie chunks, marshmallow cream and fudge sauce. YUMMY!)
4. Lemonade (good lemonade not like out of the pop machine. I mean fresh squeezed goodness.)

Four Places I Would Rather Be:
1. Paris, France
2. Anywhere in Europe
3. The Philippines
4. Minneapolis, Minnesota

People I’m Tagging:
YOU! If you want to be tagged, BE YE TAGGED! lol!

Here is a picture of my beautiful finger after yesterday’s silliness. Still not a great picture, but you can kind of see the stitches.

Well, today I did something stupid. It happens all too often really. So to start the story off, I must tell you that I have a pet peeve. When I use a ruler, I like to line the edge up against the edge of the thing I’m measuring, say the edge of the paper. It may be “proper” to have extra space at the end of the ruler (I don’t know) but, I despise rulers that don’t start at the end. You know they have like 1/4 inch space before the measurements actually begin. Am I even making sense?

So anyways, the kids got free rulers from a field trip and they were ones you can color. Yesterday, between doing things on the internet, I was coloring one of them, but that stupid space was bugging me! So this morning, I decided to cut the ends of the ruler off with an Exacto knife. You probably get where this is going now…

I did indeed cut my finger. I do stupid stuff like this all the time, but this time was much more serious. It was bleeding profusely and wouldn’t stop and from looking at the knife, I knew I had cut like a 1/4 inch into my finger! Ouch! The cut was like 3/4 inches long, too.

So, we just got back from the hospital. While there, I realized that this was all the hospital’s fault! lol! It was their ruler!!! It has their name and logo on it! That makes it their fault, right??? lol! How ironic! The nurse was so flabbergasted at my stupidity which just made me feel more stupid than ever. On top of that, I have this huge bandage on it until tomorrow and I can’t get it wet. I don’t like the bandage (it’s taking me forever to type this), but I don’t mind not having to do dishes!

And Princess is going to be so bummed she missed the hospital ans seeing me get sewn up. She loves the hospital! Weird girl!!!

So, that’s Elaine’s stupid action of the day! The picture is my bandaged hand holding the unfinished end of the ruler. My camera doesn’t take great close-up shots, but you get the idea. And the ruler isn’t done. One end is only half cut. I think I will have to throw it away so I’m not tempted to continue cutting it!

This is my sermon for this coming Sunday. Tell me what you think!

Date preached: 5/25/08, Sebewaing

RCL After Epiphany 8A

Text: Matthew 6:24-34

Subject: Why is God telling us not worry?

Complement: Because we have Him to trust in the lean times.

Exegetical Idea: If they serve God, He will provide for the Israelites – They need not worry.

Homiletic Idea: If we serve God, He will provide for us so we needn’t worry either.

Purpose: Hearers will ask God to be their Lord and provide their needs.

Type: Deductive, Expository

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

That poem, by Robert Frost, has always been a favorite of mine. The yellow wood reminds me of northern Michigan where I lived when I was young. And the constant decision of which way to go both on a walk and in my life has been beautifully detailed in this poem by Robert Frost. I always imagine myself gazing at the two roads deciding if I will take the less traveled, maybe even more difficult way or the easier way that most take. I have always likened them to the narrow and wide paths that we choose between in our life. I have chosen the narrow path to God rather than the wide path to wealth, power and destruction.

That is what our passage of scripture speaks of this week, too.

“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God AND wealth.” Matthew 6:24 NIV

Here, Jesus breaks down our choices into two paths. There is the path serving God and the path serving wealth.

The path of serving God leads to life. This should be obvious since God created both the world and us. He wants only the best for us, His children. He wants us to live in Him. He loved us so much and wanted us to have life so much that He sacrificed His only Son for us! You might say that Jesus received death from God, but it was a temporary death and and God gave Jesus life again. Jesus livse and God wants us to live eternally with Him, too.

If we think about the path of serving wealth, we know it leads to death. Nothing but God can give us eternal life. Besides that, wealth makes us greedy. If we get something we want, there is always something else we want. At some point in our lives, we have probably all said, “If I had such and such, then I would be happy.” Once we got the such and such, we realized that we needed something else or we realized that we were still not happy.

So which god will you serve? Will you serve the true God that gives life or the false god of wealth that gives death?

There are many reasons why we should serve God. Most of us here have heard them all many, many times. Let’s look at this passage and see what Jesus is telling us about serving God here.

Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Here Jesus is telling us how when we serve God, we can trust that He will take care of our needs. This is not only a very good reason for serving Him, especially in economically depressed times like now, but also a benefit to serving Him. Jesus was actually speaking to the Israelites in this passage. This passage comes from the Sermon on the Mount. He doesn’t really even focus on there being two paths. The Israelites all claimed they followed God. Jesus is telling them, if you are really following God, how can you keep worrying? God will provide, He has provided. That is the case with us as well. He provides for our needs if we follow Him and put our trust in Him.

Two weeks ago, Pastor Chris told you about God’s miraculous provision while we were at District Council. Do you think God would have provided for us if we had tried to take care of it ourselves? I tell that He wouldn’t have. We could have gotten so worried that we borrowed money from someone. Then we wouldn’t have had any worries at that moment, but later, we would have had to pay that back. We would have been worried then, I can tell you. But instead, we relied on Him to fill our needs and He did. We don’t have to pay God back. I’m not saying that borrowing money is bad. God can work that way as well, but we must listen to Him and follow Him. He told Chris and I we shouldn’t worry, so we did our best not to.

I will admit that I have always been a worrier. I came by it honestly and have struggled my whole life to let the worry go. My parents used to let me stay home from school because I had made myself sick from worry. We would be gone for an evening at something for the church. I remember going to Harvest Festival and getting back late. I wouldn’t have time for my homework and I would be nauseous because I was worried I’d get a bad grade. And this was in third grade! How silly! My teacher would have understood! Was it worth that? Did I gain anything by worrying? Only a stomachache. It didn’t get my homework done. I only lost sleep, so it hurt my health in more than one way.

Learning to trust God and give Him your worry is a slow learning process. Even now, I worry. I can feel my blood pressure rise as we are trying to leave on a trip. I am so afraid I’ll forget something or that we will run out of money. I stay in constant prayer to combat it. I have to. I know God will take care of us, but it is my sinful nature I’m fighting. It may be a long process, but I know that one day I will look back and realize that I have stopped being so worried about so many things. With God’s help I will conquer worry and so can you.

The economy is awful right now, but God is bigger than economy. God has all the money and means in the universe. Don’t you think He can provide for you? Isn’t our God big enough?

Verses 28 – 30 say:

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

What Jesus says here makes so much sense! If God can clothe the grass in splendor, don’t you think he can clothe us and provide for us in all the other ways we need? Look at our grass so full of dandelions. He has made the grass beautiful. Of course, you might not all agree, but ask Ella what her favorite flower is and she will say dandelions. If God has put that much thought into the grass, then you know he has put even more thought into us. We are much more complicated beings. He WILL take care of us if we just give worry to Him and ask for His help.

So, don’t let yourself slip into despair because you don’t know how you’ll pay your mortgage or where your next meal will come from. With God, the worry is pointless.

There are some ways that can help you learn to fully trust God. First of all, pray. Get to know Him as your most beloved friend. The more you know God, the easier it will be to trust Him because you will realize His awesome power.

Verse 33 says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

We’ve probably all heard about the earthquake in China and the cyclone in Myanmar. In both countries, Buddhism is, by far, the dominate religion. Now I’m not saying that God is punishing them or anything like that. But, these countries need to turn to God for help in their time of need. God can provide for their needs. Right now in Myanmar, the government is stopping aid from other countries! That is shockingly sad. China is faring a little better, but is still in need. The Ms, missionaries to East Asia that we have had here in the past-they have those cute Chinese daughters, were in their 20th story apartment when the earthquake hit. They are all fine, but their building was swaying so hard that they could not walk across the room to get to each other. A building near them collapsed. Their building only lost a few pieces of metal sheeting. I do believe that God was protecting them. Our own country needs to turn back to God, as well. As a nations we are getting farther and farther from God.

So, secondly, we need to ask God for help! Tell God about your worry. Tell him you don’t want to worry and that you need His help not to. I do this so often. I trust God a lot, but still not enough. It is always a work in progress. He WILL help you. All you need to do is trust and ask.

Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Lastly, follow God’s instructions. He may tell you how to take care of the situation. I’ve heard stories of people going to the grocery store without any money because God told them to. When they get there, someone payed for all their groceries! Miraculous things will happen when you follow God! God may also tell you to do nothing. He may tell you to wait on Him and His timing. If so, you better do it! Nothing is more wonderful than when you see God working. Our plans cannot measure up to God’s. Why get a mediocre outcome when you can have a miraculous one? Wait on Him and His timing.

One more thing, verse 34 tells us to worry only about today. This is another thing that is hard for me to do. I know it must be hard for others as well. But, today does have enough worries, so why borrow from tomorrow? Trust God with today’s worries and tomorrow’s worries. Give Him your everything. Choose His path and rely on Him for your provision! He WILL provide. Don’t let yourself slip into despair when God is standing with His arms outstretched saying, “Come to me, my child. I want to help you. I want to love you and I want to comfort you.” Let your whole body fall into His arms.

Last week, when we got back, and I noticed this awful smell in the kitchen. I kinda ignored it and took a nap at first. I got sick while we were gone and I was SO ready to crash! Anyway, later hubby said, “The fridge is broken and all the food is bad!”

Ugh! So, I wondered, how long did it sit there? Eww! Well, we called for repair. Then at like 11:30 that night, hubby tells me it’s not broken. Someone had turned it off!!! Hmm… I wonder who that could have been…I think it was my very curious 3 year old son!

So, sometime before we left on Sunday he turned it off and it sat all week like that. How gross!!! The food in the freezer was all…over! It was disgusting.

Then, two nights later, I kept smelling something again. IT was awful. I was getting sick to my stomach sitting in a different room! I checked the fridge first, but it was on. The smell seemed to be coming from there, though. I couldn’t figure it out. Finally, after a day and a half of stink, my mom suggested that I check the pan under the fridge.

What?! There is a pan under the fridge???

Sure enough…there was nasty dried hamburger juice in the pan. I’m so glad to have that figured out, but one little boy sure can cause a lot of…well, odors. I’m sure you all know…

So now, it’s time for a little lesson on leaving the fridge dials ALONE!!!

We had a great district council this year. We were miraculously provided for. I was miraculously healed of an ear infection and sore throat. You can read about our provision on my hubby’s blog. He did a great job of writing about it, so there is no reason for me to rewrite it. So, check out Adventures in Asceticism. He’s written some other great posts about District Council as well. I will just add that generally, our church pays for all or most of our expenses. That has been a wonderful gift in the past, but this year was especially tight, so we took donations, but not even an official love offering. I was amazed at the amount we got that way, but it still wasn’t enough. Our personal finances have been really tight the past month as well, so we weren’t in a great place when we left.

Now, as for my healing, I get to tell that story! Sunday, Princess was complaining of a sore throat. I thought, “oh, great, we’ll all be sick by the end of the week!” I wasn’t wrong. I tend to stress out when we are going somewhere. I don’t want to forget anything and I have to pack nearly everything. I make Chris pack his own clothes is all. So, I usually do get sick at the start of a trip. I think I run down my immune system or something. Anyways, I got it Sunday night. My throat hurt just a little. I thought maybe I wouldn’t get the full-blown thing. But, I did. Monday morning, I was croaking out my sentences. Monday afternoon, my in-laws met us at the campground and we handed off the kids. We went to dinner and shopping with them, but the kids were stuck to grandma and grandpa. Monday night they slept on their bus while we slept in our hotel room.

Tuesday morning we headed off to DC (District Council). My head hurt and my throat was killing me, but it was still manageable. So we went to the ordination luncheon and the banquet that night. At the banquet, my ears started hurting. I didn’t even tell Chris because I was hoping it wouldn’t be anything. We went to the house that was lent to us. It was great by the way! What fun! At 2 a.m. I awoke with terrible ear pain. I went in search of a phone book to see about a hospital. I couldn’t take it. I finally found one and located a couple of hospitals. The one looked pretty close. It was late (or early) so my getting there took some driving back and forth, but I finally found it. It wasn’t that close really. But beyond that, the sign said, “No Emergency Service.” What!?! I was astounded. The place was dark. So I was contemplating whether I should check out the other hospital. I really wanted some meds. I thought that the sooner I got them the sooner I would feel better. But I felt like God was leading me home.

I finally submitted. But I told God, ” Ok, fine, I’ll go back. But, God, please, you’ve gotta take this pain away.” I’d already been praying pretty hard through all the driving and Chris had prayed before bed and before I left. He thought I was crazy to leave. Maybe I was, but I don’t think so. Anyways, right then, I felt my ear pop and the pain dissipate! It was amazing! He healed that ear infection right up. And I know it was an infection because I’ve just had one recently. This one was worse than that one, but felt basically the same. It was definitely God! And because of the timing, I know that.

I was elated. But of course, I quickly prayed that he would heal my throat pain, too. I guess it wasn’t the right time. I got back to bed at 4 a.m. We woke and got ready for the morning service and went on Wednesday. At the morning service, during worship, I again prayed for my throat and I added my running nose, too. That was out of vanity, though. I get a bright red nose when I start wiping it. It’s awful looking and I knew we would have pictures Thursday for our ordination. He healed my throat, right then! I could feel the rough scratchy surface be like smoothed back into place and my throat didn’t hurt after that. I should tell you that I was reclaiming each healing. I don’t think Satan wanted me to believe, but I refused not to. I would feel a pang to my ear and throat, but I would think, “God healed me. I don’t have that pain anymore.” Then it would stop.

Again, I prayed for my nose to stop running, but I wasn’t really surprised that He didn’t heal that. I was just being vain. I was incredibly blessed that he healed the things causing me real pain. I will never forget that.

Through all of this, we only missed one service. Sick as I was. We missed one we love, but we needed to go back to the house to eat anyway and we would have been really late getting back with the longish drive to the house and the rush hour traffic. I think it was good that we stayed home and rested. We made some phone calls, had spaghetti for dinner and I took a nice warm, long bath in the big bath tub. It was great. I felt a lot better on Thursday morning. I would have been so tired otherwise.

It was a great week. Little Man did get sick, too. We are both still recovering, but Princess is fine now and Hubby always seems to avoid getting sick. He must have a great immune system.

Well, I have more to tell, but I’ll tell it in another post. I have pictures, too! I will be scrapping an ordination page when I get pictures from the in-laws as well.

Well, the big day is here! I will be ordained in about 5 hours! Yay! I can’t wait! District Council has gone pretty well. Right now I’m sitting in a seminar with Ed Stetzer talking about being a missional church. Good stuff! In an hour and a half, we will get pictures taken with our kids, go to dinner with the in-laws and then come back for practice and more pictures.

It has been confirmed that we are the first couple to get ordained at the same time in Michigan, at least for the past 20 years that our district superintendent, Bro. William Leach, has been in office. We succeeded in confusing the ceremony. But, having practiced, all should go well. I must be honest that it was rather fun confusing things.

Ed Stetzer is a great speaker. He talks realy fast, but what he has good church planting stuff to say. He is saying that just like missionaries who go to other countries, we need to prepare for our “mission field” where we are pastors. We need to be intentional about reaching people. Just like missionaries learn a new language and culture, we need to continually relearn the culture of those we are trying to reach. That might mean having church in a coffee shop or bar. It might mean going out to help a farmer plant his crop. Whatever the situation of the people, we need to associate ourselves with them in an obvious way. We have “engage the culture where they are.” He listed three things that we need to be do in conjunction with each other.

“Our churches need to be biblically faithful, culturally relevant and counter-culture community for the gospel and the kingdom.”

Good stuff!!! Well, I’m signing off for now!

If there are typos in this post, my apologies! I’m using Hubby’s laptop. Did I tell you that a 7-foot shelf with 20-30 vases fell on him and his laptop? I don’t think I did. I blogged about it on my minister’s network on ning.com, but never copied it over. I will have to do that.

This year has been CRAZY!!! I know that isn’t an excuse for my lack of posts, though. I’ve been feeling kinda unspiritual lately. I can’t really explain it better than that. Here I am a short week before ordination and feeling…blah spiritually. I’ve decided to take action! And I have. Hopefully my action will get me out of this funk.

So, yeah, my wonderful hubby and I will be getting ordained on Thursday, May 8th. I’m very excited! We have worked for this and I will be glad to have accomplished yet another goal in my life. I created an invitation using digi-scrap items. This is Shauna of Pineapple Plantation’s Fancy Pants kit. If you’ll be around Detroit, here is the invite:

I’m sure you’re wondering what I’ve been doing with myself all this time. I am too! lol! No, really, our family had the flu two time this year and that wiped us out for a good 5 or 6 weeks! In my free time, I have been diligently digi-scrapping. I just got into this whole new world. I really love it. I’m a huge fan of Photoshop and I never really got into paper scrapping because of the time, cost and space needed. I really love digi-scrapping. In fact, I am the lead moderator on a new digi-scrapping site. I love it at the Scrap Orchard! Here is a recent layout that I did. I think it’s my best ever! If you like it, click it and leave me some comment love! All of the credits are in the gallery.

What do you think? I was going for whimsical. I think I did it!

So, we are leaving on Sunday sometime to go down to the campground, owned by the Assemblies of God Michigan District, where we will spend a couple of R & R days and meet my in-laws. They are watching our kids for us while we are at District Council. Tuesday we will head to District Council. Then Thursday everyone, including my family, will meet in Detroit to see us get ordained. I’m super excited! Can you tell? One of the pastors in Detroit offered us their church’s missionary house to stay in, FREE of Charge, while we are there. Isn’t that awesome? We have the whole 4 bedroom house so our family can stay with us Thursday night. Yay!

God always provides for us even when we don’t know how he will do it! Praise the Lord!

Well, now you know I’m still alive. I do feel rather bad about not writing lately. But, I should have plenty to write about our ordination, so look for that in a week or so!

A new digi-scrapping site, Scrap Orchard, opened this week. Everyday they are giving away a mini-kit and having a challenge to go along with it. Today’s is “You’re A Peach”. The mini-kit was created by Kami of Ziggle Scraps. We were supposed to scrap about someone we admire. You can still get in on the action. Just click the link and go to their blog where they have the info and download. Here is my page, in honor of my hubby:

Click the image to see it enlarged and read the journaling.

So, Chris and I did our Lent sermon for Easter morning. It fit perfect. I don’t think I did as well this time. I was SO nervous. Maybe even more than last time. But, I insisted on a video if I was going to do it again, just for you , my loyal readers! It’s more audio than video because we just have the iSight in Chris’ mac. But, you can see a little bit and hear all of it.  Enjoy!